Alton’s scenic bluffs brought industry here

Published
12:00 am CDT, Sunday, June 22, 2014

June 23, 1989

A 13-year-old Alton boy gathering rocks died when he fell into a quarry pit, officials said. Brian Lee Caudle, 13, of 709 Royal St., died from massive head injuries when he fell about 150 feet into the Reliance Quarry pit. Caudle climbed onto a narrow ledge a few feet below the quarry’s rim to gather rocks to throw into the pit when he slipped. He briefly clung onto the ledge before he fell, said Alton police detective David Hayes. His two companions saw him falling off the edge, and scrapes on his hands and chest showed that he tried to get back on the ledge, Hayes said. Caudle and the two boys had ignored clearly marked no-trespassing signs that warned them of dangers associated with the pit. Police did not release the names of the other two boys, but they were not charged. Neither was injured. They all took the abandoned Illinois Central Gulf railroad right-or-way near North Henry and 20th streets. A spokesman for the quarry owners said Caudle’s death was believed to be the first ever at the quarry. He attended East Middle School.

June 23, 1964

Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam during the previous 10 stormy months, resigned from his post to take up the political cudgel against Barry Goldwater. Lodge said in a prepared statement that he was quitting his post in Saigon to “take up the political cudgel against Barry Goldwater.” He threw his support to Pennsylvania Gov. William W. Scranton’s 11th hour effort to stop the nomination of Goldwater by the Republican convention. President John son announced that Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor would succeed Lodge in Vietnam.

Many members of Congress indicated their belief that the administration had decided it was willing to risk war with Red China to prevent Communist forces from overrunning Southeast Asia.

An upsurge in temperatures, following summer’s torrid arrival, had made beating the heat the area’s foremost preoccupation. It was 94 degrees in the shade. Wheat hauled into area elevators, tested for moisture content, registered 100 degrees, and that, said Marcus Dodge, elevator at Medora, meant it was that hot in the fields where farmers were working.

June 23, 1939

Otto Stillwell Jr., 135 pounds, saved the life of Wesley Hilt, his uncle, who weighed 200 pounds, as they were fishing off a ledge of the dam landwall. Hilt had been seized with a severe attack of indigestion, and in his painful convulsions had to be “pinned” to the ledge by his nephew to keep him from falling into the water. A companion summoned an ambulance.

Alton was approaching its first “fireworks-less and noiseless” Fourth of July as city policemen prepared to enforce the new city ordinance banning the discharge as well as the sale of fireworks. Only public and licensed displays were to be permitted.

Everett Rauschenberger had been named resident engineer of the Macoupin-Jersey-Monroe County electrical cooperative by Martin H. Schaefer, manager. H.F. Dubbelde of Bunker Hill was president. For the first time in seven years the Alton Retail Merchants Association began a new fiscal year “in the black.” C.J. Jacoby was installed as president, and H.F. Otstot was re-elected secretary for his fifth consecutive year.

Ted Young of Alton had qualified for state amateur golf tournament play in Champaign.